Pittston- David Allen Wheeler died suddenly on Friday, January 10, at his home in Pittston, Maine. He had just turned 67. David was born on December 31, 1957, in Washington, D.C., to John Sidney Wheeler, Jr., and Gladys McNeely Alexander Wheeler. He was a younger brother to Michael, two years older. The family lived in Oxon Hill, Maryland, then rural, and he grew up exploring the surrounding woods, beginning his life-long love for the peace and quiet of nature. After graduating from Crossland Senior High School in Temple Hills, Maryland, in 1975, David started work as a builder, carpenter, and cabinetmaker. He was a born craftsman. Always certain he wanted to work with his hands, his work was a vocation and a defining characteristic. He and Julia Moore (now Abernethy) married in 1982 in Port Clyde, Maine, and the couple had three children over the next four years. They lived first in Tenants Harbor, Maine, where their daughter Anais was born. They subsequently moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where they had their son Morgan while David worked with his brother's architectural firm for a time. The family then settled in Bakerton, West Virginia, where their daughter Piper was born at home. In 1989, David and family returned to Midcoast Maine, initially settling in Rockland. The move was motivated, at least in part, by David's desire to work on wooden boats, and his joinery and fine woodworking skills quickly won him a place in the industry. Over the next years, he worked in shipyards including Renaissance Yacht, Sample's Shipyard, and Hodgdon Yacht, and launched boats including Signe, Antonisa, and Scheherazade. His interest in wooden and historical boatbuilding continued throughout his life. David quit drinking in 1992 and was involved in Alcoholics Anonymous throughout the midcoast through the '90s and early 2000s. He was a sponsor to many and ran AA meetings, including meetings at the jail, for a number of years. He marked and celebrated his AA anniversaries for at least 20 years and probably, privately, until the end of his life. David was a devoted father to his three children and, for a time in the 1990s, to stepdaughter Penelope Johnson Dougherty, daughter of his second wife Elizabeth Dickerson. David raised his children to be passionate readers; to value education, hard work, and self-sufficiency; and to love beauty, art, and craftsmanship. He encouraged their dreams, took great pride in their talents, and never expected them to conform to others' ideas of success. His partner, Rahina McWethy moved from Minnesota to Maine to live with him in 2014. They settled in Pittston in 2016, purchasing and improving a hunting camp. David loved this property and could be found walking with the couple's dog Django in the woods, when he wasn't cutting and stacking firewood, snowblowing, installing a solar array, etc. David was enigmatic and iconoclastic, a man of contradictions. He was a voracious reader throughout his life and could (and would) opine on historical subjects, depending on what he was reading at the time but with particular attention to World War I and II, Russia and the Eastern Front, and the Roman Empire. He often finished a book a week, and in recent years had revisited Josephus and Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. For years, he was a known character at his local coffee shop (wherever that happened to be); a long-running ritual with his children and loved ones was to "get a treat" in the afternoon, sitting in the sunny window or chatting with the barista between mouthfuls of a pecan bar or chocolate chip cookie. He often played the contrarian and curmudgeon, but he was also someone that people opened up to easily. He collected stories when he visited the mechanic or bought something listed by a private seller, and he could be remarkably thoughtful and empathetic in person. David was consistent and loyal to those he loved, staying in close touch with his parents, brother, and other family from afar. He liked to be needed, and he was most comfortable fixing things and helping with projects for his children and family. We loved him deeply, and he is missed by: his partner Rahina McWethy of Pittston, Maine; daughter Anaïs Wheeler and her partner Robert Pycior of Rockland, Maine; son Morgan Wheeler and his partner Kacie Loparto of Washington, Maine; daughter Piper Wheeler, her partner Sean McHenry, and granddaughters Nadine and Margo Maloney of Oakland, California; and his brother Michael Wheeler, sister-in-law Becky Wheeler, and nephew Alex Wheeler, of Alexandria, Virginia. He was pre-deceased by his parents Gladys McNeely (Alexander) Killoran and John Sidney Wheeler, and is survived by their respective spouses William Killoran of Springfield, Virginia, and Sandra Shoemaker of Centreville, Virginia. He is also survived by many books and DVDs, and his 1987 Land Rover Santana. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to a program that supports young people learning traditional craft, such as The Apprentice Shop in Rockland (https://www.apprenticeshop.org/) for the Scholarship Tuition Program for Adult Boat Builders. A celebration of life will be held at the Loudon Hill Center, 330 Water St., Hallowell, Maine, on Saturday, February 8th at 2 pm. A brief reception upstairs at Slate's in Hallowell (161-165 Water Street) will follow at 3:30 pm. All who knew David are welcome.